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WinSockFix, Upgrading Echat, Text Refreshing, Old vs New Method of Scrolling Text, URL List, QnA |
April 5 , 2006
16:31 Ensign Howard: Training class is starting now...... if you are new to EChat or possibly a room administrator, you should attend the class and learn a little more...... This is how we teach you.
16:32 Ensign Howard: Welcome to today's Wednesday training class with Howard.
16:32 Ensign Howard: Sorry I cancelled class last week, but I was trying to finish up answering e-mail so I could leave the next morning and go see my new grandson, which I am pleased to report is a healthy 8.5 boy named Mack.
16:33 bobbhim: yes it is - randy: congrats! - fibs: Wow 8.5 and Mack --- big guy ! - WinMax: congrats!!!
16:34 Light: I second that -- major congrats on the new grandson!
Connection Issues for a Few Solved with WinSockFix
16:34 Ensign Howard: First topic I want to cover today is that we have had a handful of users which could not get the current version of Ensign Windows to connect to the Trader Workstation software, but could get the older version of Ensign Windows to connect.
16:36 Ensign Howard: We happened to remember that a similar connect issue existed for a few users of Ensign Windows and the IQFeed software, which benefitted by running an application called WinSockFix, which I believe repairs some sort of corruption to the registry. WinSockFix resolved the socket connect issue for our IQFeed users, and was suggested as a possible solution for the TWS socket connect issue as well. I was very pleased when the reports came back from those with the problem that WinSockFix healed the problem and now they can use current Ensign Windows versions to connect to the TWS.
16:37 Ensign Howard: The primary difference between old and new Ensign for IB users was a change in the library we use to interface to the TWS. The latest library supports the refresh from IB whereas the old library did not.
16:38 Ensign Howard: So we have motivation to want to continue to use the latest library for TWS interface. The library changed between its current version and the older version by changing to a threaded socket. I guess it is the threading that was one of the reasons why those with the corrupted socket registry could not connect to TWS.
16:40 Ensign Howard: Fortunately WinSockFix resolved the socket registry issues, and I believe everyone can now connect to the TWS with the current Ensign Windows that has the IB refresh support. If there are any IB users with this connect issue still, I am asking for you to let me know and whether you have tried the latest Ensign and run WinSockFix. I believe the handful with the connect issue were all successful after running WinSockFix.
16:41 Ensign Howard: Are then any questions on this topic of WinSockFix?
How to Upgrade Echat
16:42 Ensign Howard: The chat room software has been very successful and greatly appreciated by those who use it and remember how it was in the old chat. We have not seen any major issues, and occassionally make an improvement tweak or two. I was surprized the other day, however, when I suggested a user meet me in room #75 that he said his list only went to #50. This was an indication he was using an initial chat version from a few weeks back. So, let me cover the topic of how to upgrade EChat.
16:44 Ensign Howard: When you click on the Setup button, the form shows for your private profile, and on the top is a button for upgrading. The chat program will query our web site for the date of the last upload, and be enabled, if a more current version is available.
16:47 Ensign Howard: In this picture of the property from from my own EChat, the button to upgrade to version Apr 4th is disabled because I am running the Apr 4th version already. For others with EChat, they may see their button enabled, and upgrading is as simple as clicking that upgrade button. The download will be performed, EChat will auto exit when the download is finished, and auto run the installation program. It will go through the setup selections again and you are back in the program in a matter of seconds.
16:48 Ensign Howard: You are invited to upgrade after the class if your are running an older EChat version.
16:49 Ensign Howard: One of the changes in the chat since last week was a fix for the situation where a locked room would reject a valid password.
16:48 JohnA: Could program automatically tell us it needs to be upgraded??? and then upgrade automatically itself if user says okay
16:49 Ensign Howard: Yes, john, program could do that, however, I think the current method of looking at the button occassionally when in the Setup form is sufficient.
16:49 Ensign Howard: In Ensign Windows, we have a similar upgrade method on the Internet Services form. That form will show the version dates and you can click the Download button to get a newer version.
16:51 Ensign Howard: Some of the recent changes in Ensign Windows deal with the Day Light Savings change in Europe and in the US. A couple of fixes were needed to get the refresh time stamps correct for some of the exchanges and/or data vendors. The transition to DLS went as smoothly this year for our world wide customers than ever before, which is encouraging. And we apologize to any who stumbled on a pending DLS issue, which we tried to promptly resolve when reported.
16:52 Ensign Howard: Are there any DLS issues that anyone needs my help with right now?
16:52 Ensign Howard: And my first question for you will be whether you are running a current version of Ensign Windows.
Refreshing Text in Chatroom
16:52 JF: Is there a way to retrieve a Chat log from a previous day?
16:53 Ensign Howard: JF, the chat log will hold the last 1000 lines, which might be a matter of hours for a very active room, and might be several days on an inactive room. When you enter a chat room it auto refreshes last 50 lines of transcript. However, if you want to read more than that, then right mouse click over the transcript area and use pop-up menu for Refresh Transcript and select one of the side menus for how much you want.
16:54 JF: When I try and refresh transcript, logs off, back on, and starts from there....does not refresh
16:55 JF: right but doesn't go
16:55 Ensign Howard: JF, we need to do some testing with you then, because it does work in my testing. One of the things I will have you try is an auto determination of the packet size your computer UDP socket will handle.
16:56 Ensign Howard: The way to do the auto test for the UDP socket is to click on the Setup button. On the right is a parameter for the packet size - buffer, and it will typically show either 1410 or 8000. The 1410 means we tried the 8000 when you first ran chat and did not get the 8000 test packet back. So we defaulted to 1410 size as that is a size that seems to work on computers we have found that have a socket size issue4.
16:57 Ensign Howard: ok, you must have manuallyput in 2000 and possibly that is still problematic for our server to feed you packets of transcript with 2000 characters in them. If you will manually change the parameter to 1400 then we will auto retry the 8000 test. If 8000 is not seen we will auto set the parameter to 1410.
16:58 Ensign Howard: Please click in the edit box where you now see the 2000 and overtype the value to be a 1400, then close the form. Wait for 30 seconds, reopen the form and see the value, it will be 1410 or 8000. Hopefully 8000 as that makes for faster transfer of the refresh
16:59 JF: is 1410
16:59 Ensign Howard: ok, then the 8000 failed on your socket. With 1410 in place, I think your request for bigger refresh will now work
17:00 JF: I'll try it
17:00 Ensign Howard: ok, next topic
17:00 JF: cool you da man tks
Using New or Old Method for Scrolling Text
17:00 Ensign Howard: One of the check box choices on the chat Setup is labeled Scroll Transcript. Sorry this topic is confusing, but let me explain it one more time.
17:01 Ensign Howard: During development some of our beta testers had scroll behavior that was different than mine, and this I attribute to differences in how operating systems have implemented RichEdit objects, which is the control used for the display of the transcript text. However, scrolling did work after a fashion in our old chat room design.
17:03 Ensign Howard: Therefore, the check box was added for the sake of selecting either the old method of scrolling (box checked) or the intended better scrolling method (box unchecked). The better scroll method utilizes windows message traffic to control the scroll behavior. Since old method works for everyone, the chat software defaults to having the box checked when it is installed.
17:03 @Buffy: It has been suggested that a different name for that checkbox might make it not so confusing
17:04 Ensign Howard: Ok buffy, open to suggestions for a better check box name.
17:04 Ensign Howard: What I suggest you do is the following for a quick test to see if your platform handles the new method. These are the quick test steps.
17:05 Ensign Howard: 1) Click on the Setup button and uncheck the Scroll Transcript check box.
17:05 Ensign Howard: 2) Close form, and click mouse down in the Text Entry box below the transcript.
17:06 Ensign Howard: 3) Now drag slider bar on the transcript area upward and the transcript should stay in the new position and not scroll as new text is added to the room.... Do not click in the transcript as that changes focus away from the Text Entry area.
17:06 Ensign Howard: 4) When you want to return to the bottom of the transcript and have it resume scrolling, click in the Text Entry area box again.
17:08 Ensign Howard: If the transcript stayed in position with the slider bar, and jumps to show recent text when you click again in the Text Entry area, then you can continue to leave the Scroll Transcript box unchecked. Your system handles the windows messaging as intended.
17:08 amg: that works :) thx
17:08 fibs: works great Thanks H
17:09 Ensign Howard: welcome.... the new way is so much better than the old way, it is unfortunate some computer platforms have a different behavior.... hence the need for a check box to select either method
17:09 Ensign Howard: Hopefully the old method is only used by a small percentage.
17:09 Ensign Howard: ok, next topic
URL List / New Feature - using = to label URL
17:10 Ensign Howard: On the top of the chat form on the right hand side is a drop down box where you can have some favorite URLs listed.
17:11 Ensign Howard: This list can be managed on the Setup form. You can add to the list by typing in a URL on the Setup form's Favorite URLs edit box. (Or copy and paste a link into window) You use the same list to delete a URL by selecting it on the list on the Setup form and click the Delete button by the list.
17:13 Ensign Howard: Whatever is text in the list edit box on the top is what we will delete from the list when you click the Delete button.
17:13 Ensign Howard: You can also add URLs to the list on the main chat form by entering the URL in the list edit box. However, you cannot delete on the main chat form.
17:14 Ensign Howard: Now, the new feature about the Favorites list is you can have a label with the URL and separate the two with an = character.
17:14 Ensign Howard: So in my example, see my 4th entry is Ventrilo = and then the URL follows the = character. This is helpful to me to remember what the URL is about. The text to the left of the = character is a label for me. Most of the URLs are easy to recognize. You can use the label with the URL if you want to. But I find it helpful to label some URLs that are not easy to recognize. Any questions about Fovorite URLs feature?
17:17 Ensign Howard: Now, if you have already selected a URL, and want to reselect it so it redisplays...
17:18 Ensign Howard: the selected URL is already showing in the edit box on the list, so you just click in the Edit box and then click in the URL area by the Post button and the selected URL will be reshown.
17:20 Ensign Howard: So in this example, the favorite URL of dacharts is already showing, and to reselect it, I can click on the edit box, and then click on the box with the ensignsoftware URL by the post button and the dacharts URL will reshow in the viewer.
17:20 Ensign Howard: ok, next topic
Bulletin URLs
17:20 Ensign Howard: Many of the rooms make use of the Bulletin button to post information about the room. The bulletins can contain URLs which can be clicked on, and an excellent example of such a bulletin is the one for the B-Line chat room.
17:21 JF: Is there a way to copy a line of text right off of the transcript page, like copy paste?
17:21 Ensign Howard: yes, JF, and that copy process is super simple... just click mouse down on the text, drag across, and release mouse. On the mouse release the selected text is auto copied to the clipboard.
17:23 JF: so cool!!!!
17:23 fibs: 14:21 Ensign Howard: yes, JF, and that copy process is super simple... just click mouse down on the text, drag across, and release mouse. To see it is on the clipboard, you can click mouse in the text entry area, and do CTRL+V to paste or use pop-up menu to Paste to Text Entry.
17:23 JF: thanks!
17:23 Ensign Howard: welcome.
17:23 Ensign Howard: The Bulletin for this support chat room is being used to show recent changes to EChat and to Ensign Windows. Go ahead and click the bulletin button. The bulletin text is shown in our system color which is purple. Purple is also the color used for our Global Messages, which many of you saw announcing today's class was starting.
17:25 Ensign Howard: Room Admins control the content of the Bulletin for thier chat room. They also control the Welcome and Denied Access messages, all of which can contain URLs in the body of the message. For example, the welcome message for the New Users room has a URL for the chat room documentation.
17:27 Ensign Howard: We have a staff member in the New Users room, Ensign KJ, who is eager to help new users have a tour of the chat software and/or Ensign Windows...... Please direct support questions to this Support room's staff.
17:28 Ensign Howard: And we encourage Ensign Windows users to make use of the menu Help | Q&A Knowledgebase as there are several hundred articles in that data base and the database can be searched by keyword. I often quote a reply for support e-mail by copying from the knowledgebase as the question being asked has been asked and answered before.
17:29 Ensign Howard: ok, that is the end of my training........ and we can now start with Q&A until I have to leave.
17:30 Ensign Howard: Please use CTRL-Q keys to put question icon by your name and I will call on your in sequence.
Coloring Candles in Ensign (Normal = prior zero)
17:29 ken: Hi, I have a problem with COLOUR BARS, I upgraded new version last week, In your Chart Properties you used to have a box for No of Colours, where I could set the colours to "0". Then I can use the Studies Ergodics Indicator to set the Colour of the Bars, I used Solid Candles. I was told to try Ensign Rockets and Normal, there is still a Yellow shade on it. and I could not use my Solid Candle. Are you able to put the "No of Colour Box" back on the Chart Properites in the next UPGRADE so I can set it to invisible or "0" colours. We have a large Group of people in PALM who will be face with this problem sooner or later, ....... KINDLY HELP.
17:31 Ensign Howard: ken, I am not sure I am following your question..... or your use of the color with candles. The current Ensign has the same color capability as old Ensign you apparently just got around to upgrading off of. In fact, the new property form is even better at keeping users from making mistakes in inappropriate selections for candles.
17:31 ken: I use to set the Colour of the bars by Indicators
17:32 Ensign Howard: Fine, the selection of 0 you used in the past is now the selection of Normal on the color bars list box. So the number is now a word and the edit box is now a list box.
17:33 Ensign Howard: So you can use the form to select Normal for the color bars whereas before you would enter 0. The 0 was not Number of colors, but rather an index for the Color Bars tool. Or you can select the same Normal selection on the Color Bar drop down box on the charts toolbar. When the color bars selection is on Normal, then it will not compete or disrupt the color bar coloring that is being controled by your studies.
17:35 Ensign Howard: Good question and this answer should get you going again.
17:36 ken: Thanks
17:35 Ensign Howard: ok, aaron, your ?
17:35 Aaron: I heard IB is now offering one year backfill. Have you heard this and is Ensign capable of accessing this?
17:36 Ensign Howard: I heard too, and in my investigation have not gotten the daily download to return anything, and also suspect the request size is still limited to 5 days. In which case to get 200 bars, we would have to make 40 requests for 5 bar chunks. That is a pain to manage when we already have other refresh sources for daily that returns many years worth of data in a single request and single reply.
17:37 Aaron: k - ty
17:37 Ensign Howard: The stock refresh you already have for 1st Internet Source and return data from 1930 if it is available. And the futures database is from DTN Market Acess and that goes back to 1996 or so. So our current implementation is already superior to what IB is trying to do to catch up to our other sources. But I will keep watching IB for improvements and adapt Ensign as deemed beneficial.
17:39 Aaron: :)
17:39 Ensign Howard: OK, CW, your turn
17:39 CW: ? I see "echat.new" dtd 4/5/2006 in the echat directory...but no auto update, still previous version
17:40 Ensign Howard: When you do an upgrade, the download is stored as echat.new because echat.exe is currently running. We write a small batch file execute upon exit of echat, and the batch file renames the files as needed and runs the installation program. So the file date is for when you downloaded, which was today. The version being installed is the last upload which is yesterday's upload. Do not be confused by the date on the download being today's date, but the program being installed has a different version date.
17:42 Ensign Howard: All is well..... nothing is wrong.
17:42 CW: tks
17:42 Ensign Howard: ok, DYoung your ?
17:42 DYoung: Howard, I have noticed that when I use a "Direct Note" that the "tab" feature does not work like in others. To duplicate this problem, click on "Direct Note" and then click in the chart. You can start typing, etc., but I can't tab to a different preset. Is this the way you have designed it? Just wondering. Other tools seem to have the "tab" feature. I have to actually open the Note to change to a different tab.
17:43 Ensign Howard: DYoung, the direct note is for you to type an entry on the chart.;.... you can use the wheel on your mouse to go to other tab settings for the note, but these settings will only affect the font size, color, framing, arrow shape ect, but will not affect the note text. The note text you have to manually provide by typing int.
17:44 Ensign Howard: Now if you want a prewritten note, such as we often use for a disclaimer or copywrite notice, then the Fixed note with the N button instead of the Direct note with the A button is the way to go.
17:44 DYoung: Actually, I have pre-set note saved in tabs and I can open the pre=set messages when I use the tab feature. Is there a better way to do this?
17:45 Ensign Howard: That is basically why we have 2 note buttons.
17:45 DYoung: OK Thanks
17:45 Ensign Howard: Use the N button for preset notes, and when you place N button on the chart for a location, then use the wheel on your mouse so rotate through the tabs to find the intended pre-set text. (You can also use the keypad and hit the number of the tab for the preset note.)
17:46 Ensign Howard: ok John, your?
17:46 JohnA: What causes chat server to go offline then back online a few seconds later?
17:46 Ensign Howard: There is a ping pong handshake with the chat server from your chat client to keep the UPD connect established. When we do not see the handshake reply in a 20 second window, we show the off-line message, change the form color to yellow as a visual indication, and then initiate a reconnect sequence. The ping pong is every 2 to 5 seconds, so we have had ample opportunity in 20 seconds to be serviced.
17:48 Ensign Howard: Possibly the server is off line, or suggish internet etc, or truly lost the connection. This hopefully is rare. I saw it this morning in attempting to join chat, and had Mike check the server which seemed to be running slow. He saw some issue worthy of resetting the chat server, and it has been better all day since the reset.
17:49 Ensign Howard: This is the first manual reset we have had Mike do in over a week.
17:49 WinMax: Howard... I am enjoying the hair cross function to find the exact location of the chart candles across the charts I simulatenously follow... are there any same function in a NOTE (A or N) so I can refer exactly which candle used for entry and exit for reference...????
7:50 Ensign Howard: WinMax, do not have a way for 1 note to be applied on multiple charts at the cross hair location. So you can put an arrow marker or a note on a chart, but only on the chart that has the focus. Other charts would require additional application of your marker manually.
17:51 Ensign Howard: ok, Light your turn.
17:51 Light: I have had probs losing data on my charts when Ensign or my computer did not shut down correctly. I thought Ensign had an automatic timer for saving chart data, but I can no longer find this feature. Is there a way to auto-save my chart data in Ensign (e.g., every hour)?
17:51 MidKnight: I've had that too - CB: me too - JF: yes - H2O: also
17:52 Ensign Howard: Closing your workspace and reopening it would accomplish the resave. The close action forces the chart file in memory to be written to the hard disk.
17:52 MidKnight: Can't do that when I sleep :)
17:52 Light: yes - but can't Ensign auto-save my data without me being present? I have lost at least three days of data for lack of this feature in just the last week and a half
17:53 CB: Can we use the scheduler for it - for instance?
17:53 Ensign Howard: The auto save was not fool proof to begin with. What auto save was basically trying to do was write the quote table with its pointer to the thread of ticks in the tick pool out to the hard disk on a regular basis. We had more of a support issue when the feature was in the program where when the write to file kicked in users would say it interrupted the processing of the live feed, so we too the auto save feature out. And in my opinion, it is not that sorely needed because all flavors of Ensign have access to refresh
17:54 MidKnight: This is pretty crucial for me because many markets I like do not have more then 33 mins of IB tick refresh. so if it crashes on me then I lose a whole days data so the refresh is your backup in case you have abnormal termination of the program.
17:55 Light: yes but refresh is not the same as live data. Data if very different -- it is potentially a serious issue,. Refresh is not sufficient to reinstate my tick charts for example. refresh is 10% more ticks than IB live. That 10% is crucial to me. So if I lose my data collected live, then it's gone, period
17:55 MidKnight: How do I refresh my range hang seng charts? Or my range aussie spi charts?
17:56 Ensign Howard: ok, I will consider putting a auto save of charts back in
17:56 Light: thanks Howard - it's a big deal to many of us
17:56 Light: thanks Howard - it's a big deal to many of us
17:57 MidKnight: cheers Howard
17:58 Ensign Howard: ok, zbullz, your turn
17:58 zbullzbear: how do you activate the "hair cross" function?
17:58 Ensign Howard: press CTRL-C keys on the chart to toggle to the big cross hair. If you want this to show on other charts for aligned bars, there is a check box to check on the Setup | Charts form.
17:59 zbullzbear: En H tx
17:59 jr01: Howard I have had many times where I go to get a chart that has alot of data missing, i've done the delete right and refresh however still have the same problem what can one do in that situation?
17:59 Ensign Howard: jr, our question is too general.... I need details and specifics.... so you need to tell me the data feed, the chart symbol, the chart time frame etc.
18:00 jr01: May I post it?
18:00 CB: jr01 - when I had that problem it was cause my my keeping "preserve existing bars" checkd on my chart propertires. when I unchecked it and refreshed all was ok again
18:00 jr01: mine is not checked tks
18:01 Ensign Howard: jr, upgrade to 04-05 version and then refresh again. If you are on eSignal feed then you can refresh 6 days. If you are on IB feed then you can refresh today, which looks like what you got already. None of our feeds are going to give you ticks from Dec to now.
8:04 Ensign_Kimball: Howard had to go. Does anyone else have a question.
18:04 pavoni: After creating a trusted IP address of 127.0.0.1 within TWS, I later shut down TWS. When I reopened it, there was no longer any trusted IP address listed, and now TWS is prompting me again to "accept incoming connection attempt". In the past, even with a prompt, and no trusted IP listed, TWS would auto accept the connection attempt. But now, the 127.0.0.1 will not remain in place with the TWS trusted IP list. Any ideas?
18:10 Ensign_Kimball: pavoni....did you click the 'Apply' button before exiting the API screen in TWS. This should save it.
18:10 pavoni: yes - I did - I would have thought that would do it, but it doesn't
18:10 Ensign_Kimball: I have build 857.6 of TWS. What is yours. Click help to see.
18:11 pavoni: 857.7 April 3rd version
18:12 Ensign_Kimball: You may need to ask IB. I don't know why it wouldn't save.
18:12 pavoni: ny idea why Ensign auto logs on when scheduled Monday thru Thursday night, but never on Sunday night?
18:13 Ensign_Kimball: Which auto log are you referring to.
18:14 pavoni: under "setup/connection Ensign reconnects at a given time when "autoRun/connect TWS is checked but Ensign never auto runs TWS on Sunday night
18:15 Ensign_Kimball: Not sure pavoni....will make a note to check this.
18:15 pavoni: ok. Monday thru thursday work great. Been doing it for over 6 months now. thx Kimball
18:16 Ensign_Kimball: ok8:16 Ensign_Kimball: ok
18:17 Ensign_Kimball: any other questions.
18:17 JF: Login use to type in User Name and Password automatically, now requires manual input. Running Version 3/27. Auto Run/Connect TWS is checked.
18:18 Ensign_Kimball: Upgrade to very latest Ensign, and very latest TWS. That should correct it JF.
18:19 JF: k tnx
18:19 Ensign_Kimball: Next question.
18:19 Light: Thanks Kimball -- I've got to run, or I would stay for a couple more. I'll try to get them in next week. Thanks again
18:20 Ensign_Kimball: ok. If there are no more questions....then we will call it a day. Have a nice day.